After watching the two men vanish into the void, Xu Zimo finally turned around and placed his hands on the Void Trees.
The most valuable parts of a Void Tree were its leaves and the wood itself.
Without studying them too much, he simply pulled the trees up by the roots and planted them into his God World.
To Xu Zimo, the Void Trees weren't that tempting. Although many cultivators came to Void Valley, the land was so vast that it was rare to encounter others.
The closer one got to the Path of No Return, the more desolate it became.
Xu Zimo continued traveling for over a month before finally reaching the border of the Path of No Return one afternoon.
Ahead of him stretched a horizontal mountain range.
From a distance, the range resembled a wall, a natural divide cutting Void Valley into two.
There were no signs of life. As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless stretch of mountains.
Xu Zimo noticed that while flying in Void Valley was still barely possible, the closer he got to the Path of No Return, the harder it became.
The spatial laws above were completely chaotic. The space itself was fragile, like paper, ready to tear apart at the slightest touch.
When he stood atop the ridge, he looked toward the other side, into the borderlands of the Path of No Return.
There, space no longer existed in the traditional sense. Countless spatial storms surged wildly.
Once space shattered in this region, it could not repair itself. The storms roared like blades, churning through the land.
Xu Zimo noticed a transparent barrier along the other side of the ridge. He couldn’t pass through directly.
So he decided to find the valley Old Master Pi had mentioned.
He walked along the mountain ridge, searching.
Along the way, he saw several valleys and encountered five or six more Void Trees.
Eventually, he found a valley that matched Old Master Pi’s description.
This valley was strange.
Unlike the rest of Void Valley, it was full of plant life, something almost impossible in this land.
Several poplar and willow trees grew within. Dense shrubs and green plants also poked out from the cliffside.
On the eastern side of the valley, a waterfall poured down like a long river from above.
The water was crystal clear and flowed from the high cliff into a deep, bottomless pit below.
Xu Zimo walked slowly into the valley.
As he approached the river, he smelled a strong aroma of alcohol.
A rich, fragrant scent.
He touched the falling water, then raised his hand and sniffed it.
It wasn’t water, it was wine.
The entire waterfall was formed from wine.
According to Old Master Pi, this was the very place where he had found the golden monkey statue.
Before Xu Zimo could think deeper, he suddenly heard loud shouting from the distance.
Chaotic yelling mixed with rumbling vibrations.
“Void storm’s coming! Everyone run!”
“Get out of Void Valley! It’s about to be cleansed!”
Panic filled the air. Xu Zimo looked up and saw the sky beginning to split.
Cracks spread rapidly across the sky, multiplying and widening. The entire sky looked like it was collapsing, and even the ground began to tremble.
In the distance, he saw people fleeing.
Above, countless streams of chaotic space tore through the sky. Wherever they passed, all plant life was wiped out.
The storm approached quickly, like a massive sweeping purge of the land.
As it neared the valley, Xu Zimo calmly took a bead from his God World.
The Wind-Destroying Pearl, one of the Five Spirit Orbs.
He had once acquired two of these pearls: the Soft-Water Pearl and the Wind-Destroying Pearl.
The Five Spirit Orbs had powerful origins.
It was said their true strength could only be unlocked when united, but even individually, they held great power.
The Wind-Destroying Pearl governed all the winds of the world, some even called it the God-Wind Anchor.
Xu Zimo slowly channeled his Power of Creation into the pearl, and it began to glow with a soft greenish light.
He tossed it upward, and the pearl hovered above him. A beam of light shot down and enveloped him completely.
As the storm of space tore through the valley, all the plants were uprooted and shredded.
But Xu Zimo stood still. The pearl above his head shone brightly as it rotated.
The spatial storm passed quickly, sweeping through the valley in an instant and then vanishing just as fast.
Once it passed, Xu Zimo looked around and found the entire valley destroyed.
Only the wine-like waterfall remained.
Previously, the vegetation had hidden the cliffs. Now that everything was gone, he spotted a door embedded in the bare rock.
A black-and-gold ancient door.
Xu Zimo could sense it was sealed.
But on the left side of the door, one section of the seal had broken, leaving a small gap.
“Is this the entrance to the Path of No Return?” he wondered aloud.
He glanced at the flowing waterfall again. Could it be monkey wine?
At that moment, he became even more certain, if the Void Spirit Monkey existed, it must be inside the Path of No Return.
Looking up at the Wind-Destroying Pearl, he hesitated.
The spatial storms inside the Path of No Return would be far stronger than what he’d just faced, on a completely different level.
If he had all five pearls, he wouldn’t be worried.
But with just two, he wasn’t sure if it would hold.
After thinking for a moment, he decided.
He stepped into the gap of the ancient door, officially entering the Path of No Return.
Piercing winds sliced across his body like blades.
This desolate land was covered in thick white fog. He could only see about ten meters ahead.
Xu Zimo looked around in confusion. He had lost all sense of direction.
The pressure on the Wind-Destroying Pearl overhead was immense. It spun faster and faster.
Xu Zimo felt his power of creation being rapidly consumed.
There was no spiritforce in this space to replenish it.
“They say Void Valley is the abandoned land of the Primordial Heartlands... But maybe this place, the Path of No Return, is the true core of that abandonment,” Xu Zimo muttered.
Just as he felt lost and aimless, he suddenly sensed a reaction from the golden monkey statue.